Changing Ideas Award
This piece is a reflection of my experience as a diasporic Jew in the digital age, exploring themes of surveillance, identity and removal in the context of the genocide in Gaza and the broader Israel-Palestine conflict.

Each square is painted from screenshots of a 24/7 livestream of Jerusalem's Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. I see this site as a distilled representation of the way the Israeli State functions to co-opt and repackage Jewish identity into one of unconditional nationalist support for a nation built on the continued displacement of a population. The Plaza in front of the Wall has become a space used for the swearing in of soldiers and political spectacle, entangling national and religious identities, therefore extrapolating that to the rest of the diaspora.
In painting these images in monochrome, leaning into the delicate abstraction and obfuscation of each figure as their likeness passes through the cloud, their identities become obscured, making it impossible to tell whether someone is a soldier or a worshipper, transforming identities, just as the Israeli state continues to do in justifying its many war crimes. The vertical perspective of the security camera mirrors the suffocating surveillance state that Palestinians live under, enabled by technologies that companies are doing their best to spread further around the world. The squares also reflect the endless stream of information and misinformation strewn across the internet to manufacture consent for the state's criminal desires, with people becoming numbers, depersonalised in the drudgery of the information war.

The quiet, understated nature of the paintings open up space for reflection. The cold, distant perspective gives the viewer space to carefully navigate the themes, and to work together towards a better future.